New Zealand blogosphere
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
New Zealand's blogosphere is a small community of blogs that comment largely on New Zealand politics, society and occurrences.
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[edit] Political blogs
There is a considerable number of blogs that focus on the politics of New Zealand. Many of these are written by 'insiders'. These insiders include David Farrar [1], a former staffer for then Prime Minister Jim Bolger, and Jordan Carter[2], a prominent Labour party organiser.
[edit] Official blogs
The ACT party leader Rodney Hide, also blogs. Hide often comments from within the House itself. The Green party has an official blog, Frogblog, which often links to, and expands on, press releases. The blog is partly written by Greens co-leader Russel Norman. Unlike overseas counterparts, both allow comments.
Numerous politicians began blogs during the 2005 election, but these have since died.
[edit] UnOfficial blogs
Many grassroots and leftwing activists maintain blogs. Joe Carolan from Socialist Worker NZ regularly updates AntiCapitaliste [3], and the blog of the new Solidarity Union. [4]. Both give interesting takes on the union and antiwar movements from a socialist POV.
[edit] Controversy
In 2006 Tim Selwyn, an Auckland man convicted of sedition, is also a prominent blogger, often bringing up controversial points. In August of that year, Sunday News revealed a blog site set up by Wellington-based national socialist Nic Miller after personal details of four Jewish families living in the city were posted on it. The details were later removed from the site.
[edit] Media relationship
The majority of bloggers still rely upon the media for the provision of news stories to comment upon. However, they do not repeat the news, instead putting forward their viewpoint on it.
Some bloggers, such as Russell Brown, Keith Ng and Tze Ming Mok (who are part of the Public Address blog system) work within the media industry.
There have been notable examples of bloggers breaking news stories, and then having the media pick it up. For instance, Idiot/Savant discovered that neither Rodney Hide nor Heather Roy had been showing up to Parliament, and consequently, the ACT party had not voted in the budget debate. The story was subsequently picked up by The Dominion Post and The New Zealand Herald.
[edit] Non-Political blogs
There are numerous non-political blogs. They range from music blogs, to personal blogs.
